Horrorscope
by MasterShaper
Summary: Twelve ghostly oneshots for the twelve signs of the Zodiac. AU. IN PROGRESS.
1. Aries

**Aries**

It all started so innocently.

All he had been dared to do was to spend ONE night in the old house - the same one which that old maniac had once lived in. No one had been into the house since he had kicked the bucket fifteen years ago, the last people to cross the threshold being the paramedics who had carried his corpse away on a white stretcher. And it wasn't even a _large_ house at that; it stood just two stories high, though one could easily see the blackened, grimy window panes of a basement from the house's front side. The paint was peeling off the walls, as expected, and the windows were all devoid of glass, having been smashed in quite some time ago. Some retained a few sharp fragments of filthy glass at their edges, looking like gaping maws with jagged teeth that occasionally reflected some incident light.

Indeed, the first and last sign that he had been about to die was a piercing scream that had broken the midnight silence. His neighbors had been woken up by the practically banshee-like trill, and the next morning old Mr. McCarron was a cadaver in the local morgue. Soon thereafter, the neighbors had moved out, claiming that strange disturbances were taking place in the house.

From there, the stories started, and within no time at all there was a respectable number of disturbing stories about the house circulating about the town. Some claimed that drug addicts had once made it their little hiding place, but something had driven them off. Also, there was the little boy that had supposedly gone in to retrieve his Growlithe, but who had not spoken a word to anyone since he was found wandering in the woods near the old bungalow. And yet another story said that the old man had been killed by a malevolent presence in the house itself, and this was apparently deduced by the look of horror that had been his death mask. The most questionable of the rumors, however, involved bright lights flaring up on the upper floors in the dead of the night.

Worn bicycle tires crushed long, unkempt grass as they rotated, carrying the bicycle's owner towards the derelict house. The wheels squeaked as he put some pressure on the brakes, stopping not ten feet away from the porch. Taking off his bike helmet, the cyclist - a freckle-faced boy barely out of his teens - looked up at the house looming before him.

It took him a second to notice the shiver running down his spine. It took him another to start wanting to turn back and go home. In the end, the thought of being labeled as a chicken by his group of adrenaline-junkie friends won out.

Which was how, at seven thirty in the evening, Jacob found himself parking his bike on the old house's porch. Carefully placing the bike on a patch of wood that seemed solid enough, he hung his helmet on the handlebars.

At seven thirty-two, he pushed the front door open and took his first steps into the late Emil McCarron's home.

xxx

The time was now eleven forty-three p.m.

Jacob had made himself quite at home in the living room - well, as comfortable as one could get in a cobweb-filled, dusty wreck of a house. He had found some candles on the mantelpiece, and had lit them with his trusty old Zippo lighter. So he sat in the dim candlelight, twiddling his thumbs and wishing that the night would hasten its progress and give way to dawn. Not only was it _boring_ in the house, it was admittedly a little... creepy.

Suddenly, he heard the distant sound of a clock ticking.

Reflexively, his hand went to the lone Pokeball clipped to his belt. He hadn't wanted to let his Grotle out, since it would have probably have given him a lecture on his being foolhardy enough to spend a night in the McCarron residence. However, now the shivers running down his spine made all thoughts of a nagging Grass-turtle go flying out of the proverbial window. With a practiced flick of his wrist, the Pokeball opened up, and Grotle materialized in a flash of light.

"Gro? Grotle!"

"Yeah, I know... But we're here already, so spare me-"

"Grotle grotle, _grotle_!"

"Meh, all that superstitious crap is bullshit."

"Gro."

"Touche..."

At that moment, the clock stopped ticking - if it had been a clock in the first place - and there came the unmistakable DING! of a microwave oven from the back of the house. Both trainer and Pokemon froze where they stood, both of them shocked into silence.

"Did- did you hear that?"

"Grotle..." whimpered the turtle, moving closer to his feet and pressing against him with its shell, "Gro!"

"... lets check it out," Grotle gave him a look that clearly questioned his sanity, "Probably just a mischievous Rotom or something, right? Nothing you can't handle."

After a few seconds of contemplation, the turtle-like Pokemon nodded, and the two of them plodded towards the darkened back portion of the house, where the strange sounds had come from. Just as they left the living room, passing through a rotting doorway, the candles Jacob had lit earlier all went out simultaneously, throwing them into pitch-black darkness.

"Grotle!"

"Wha-? What happened?"

The squat Pokemon merely growled in response, even as the mysterious clock began ticking again, this time much closer to them.

"Be ready, Grotle. If there's a Ghost Pokemon there, use Energy Ball."

Nodding slowly, the Pokemon plodded ahead of its trainer, with him keeping a hand on its shell all the while.

Neither of them noticed that back in the living room, several glittering eyes were now watching their progress eagerly from beneath puddles of molten wax.

xxx

Just as they entered one of the house's back rooms - presumably the kitchen since it lacked a door - the clock stopped ticking once again. Sure enough, they had made it into the kitchen, and Jacob saw the unmistakable silhouette of a grandfather clock illuminated in the pale moonlight that came in through the kitchen's smashed window. Somehow, the clock's pendulum was swinging ponderously, as though it was just done with winding down. Even as he took in the sight of the strangely-behaving antique, it began ticking again, the pendulum picking up speed with every successive oscillation.

"Energy Ball on the clock!"

"Gro!" his Pokemon eagerly complied, firing a sphere of pulsating green energy at the ancient timepiece. The clock's upper quarter exploded into a shower of wooden and glass fragments, causing both of them to duck so as to avoid being pelted by the shrapnel. Heavy and no longer held up by its bolts, the pendulum crashed to the floor, smashing through the glass face that had once kept dust away from it.

With a shrill cackle, a glowing ball of electricity rocketed out of the ruined grandfather clock, hurtling towards the Grotle's head. Caught off-guard, the slow Pokemon gasped in panic as the released Rotom latched onto its face and began shocking it with a powerful Thundershock.

"No! Use Bite!" Jacob shouted, as the Ghost/Electric type continued its assault on his partner's face, "It's a Ghost-"

He was cut-off by an abrupt explosion of light that lit up the entire kitchen and rendered the crazed Rotom semi-transparent. Upon seeing the bright flash of light, the Rotom let out a shrill whistle, and took a dive into the broken down fridge in the corner, making the fridge come to life with a strangled hum and a blast of unnaturally cold air that threw its door open. Jacob rubbed at his eyes in an attempt to regain his vision after the light flash, and his Grotle collapsed to the floor with a wary sigh, drained after the brief tussle with the mechanically-inclined spirit.

When his eyesight came back to him, Jacob immediately found himself wishing that it hadn't.

Floating in the air not six feet away from him was an Baltoy-like creature with several blue flames burning at the ends of its slender limbs, and on the top of its centrally-located head. Two circular, beacon-like lights glowed from under the large flame that was presumably its head, and it moved through the air with a delicate clanking sound not unlike metallic wind chimes.

_"Why have you entered our domain?" _asked a metallic voice that echoed in his mind._  
_

"I- I- Don't hurt me!" cried the terrified teenager, hastily stepping back, "Grotle! Energy Ball"

Before his partner could respond, the hovering being wheeled about in mid-air and unleashed a jet of bluebell-colored flames in his Grotle's direction. To his horror, he saw the turtle's symbiotic foliage begin to smoke and curl, some of the drier bits catching fire. The worn-out Pokemon let out a cry of pain, even as its body caught fire.

"No! Grotle- Grotle!" fingers that once upon a time could easily handle a Pokeball fumbled with the familiar device, "Re- return!"

However, he never got to return his Grotle. One of the flaming thing's limbs fired a fine stream of fire that knocked the Pokeball out of his hand, charring his skin badly in the process. As he doubled over with a scream of pain, the Rotom hiding in the fridge began to laugh hysterically, the sounds echoing sinisterly through the derelict appliance's coolant tanks.

_"We so rarely get to feast on human flesh... And often enough, it gets away..."_

"NO!" he wailed, as the monstrosity advanced on him, causing him to backpedal and crash against the wall, "You can't-"

_"Oh, but I CAN!"_ laughed the creature diabolically, its eyes glowing with latent energy, slowly coming closer to him with every passing second, _"The Grotle shall be the appetizer, and you shall be our main course... for a CANDLE-LIT supper..."_

No one heard the agonized screams coming from the abandoned house that night, nor did anyone notice the strangely-colored flames that were apparently raging in the kitchen but yet were not consuming the house like any decent inferno would have done. Within minutes, about a dozen other flames of varying sizes had ignited at various locations inside the house, all heading down towards the kitchen. Somewhere about half-past midnight, the screams and flames died out, leaving the house ominously silent.

xxx

Jacob's disappearance was the talk of the town for a while. When his bicycle was seen outside the McCarron house, the rumors became steadily more gruesome. For the first time in god-knew how long, Officer Jenny and two trainee constables entered the house with their Growlithe, searching for clues as to the teenager's sudden vanishing act. All they found was a charred Pokeball lying in the kitchen, next to a destroyed grandfather clock.

"Potts, scan that ball."

"Yes, ma'am!" saluted the younger constable, whipping out a portable Pokeball scanner. After passing it over the ball, he turned to his superior with a grim expression, "Yup, it belonged to the kid's Grotle."

Officer Jenny sighed, running a finger through her hair wearily, "Pack it up, boys. File it as an M-P report."

"An M-P?" asked the other constable, puzzled, "But we just found-"

"An M-P report, I said," she interrupted him, "When you've been on the beat around these parts as long as I have, you'll learn things about this place."

"Alright, then..."

"But what is it that could have done this?"

Jenny grimaced, gesturing for them to come closer. Once they were within whispering range, she cast a quick glance around to make sure no eavesdroppers were in range.

"Emil McCarron's insane Shandera did this."

"What's that?"

"Old McCarron was a Ghost-type specialist. This house is practically saturated with Rotom and that Shandera's family. Rumor has it that he managed to smuggle a Ranpuraa in from Isshu sometime back, and that he was training it in here. It wasn't entirely sane, which was how he was said to have gotten a breeder to spring one for him. But he only ever got two badges, and when that mentally-unstable Ranpuraa evolved, I guess it decided to disobey him for the first and last time."

"Heckers... Why doesn't a Gym Leader or someone get rid of them?"

As she turned to leave the house, she shrugged, "Maybe even Ghosts need a place to haunt. But then again, Mr. Moore was the last Gym Leader who tried to chase them out."

"Man, those spooks must really be strong, to make a Gym Leader retire..."

"Agreed. Now lets get out of here before people get nosey."

As the three police officers left, they failed to notice that above their heads, the kitchen's chandelier was surprisingly free of dust and cobwebs, and that two faintly-glowing eyes on its spherical body had been tracking their movements all the while.


	2. Taurus

**Taurus**

Year after year, things turned out the same way. What made it particularly dreaded was the fact that it always left at least one person weeping over a closed casket. And of course, the casket had to be closed, always - otherwise the person or people who attended the funeral might have been driven beyond mere tears in expressing their sorrow.

They came from the looming mountains beyond the Evil Forest, the Metagross did. No one knew how many of them there actually were, just that they came round just before winter set in, as autumn's last leaves were falling.

It would all start with the whole forest going silent. Ledian, Kricketune, Kricketot... all of them would immediately halt their nocturnal symphonies when the Metagross neared. Then the sounds of trees collapsing would carry through the silent night. And then... the Metagross would reach the village, Psychic powers being used to scout out their potential prey for the night. Truly, winter rendered them into a pack of bloodthirsty monsters who only cared to fill their stomachs with some warm flesh, to keep them warm during the viciously cold snowy spells.

Old. Young. Male. Female. It didn't matter; all were equal before the Metagross.

However, some people did make it past the bloody nights when the Steel Psychics fed - Miss Koh the elderly schoolteacher and Jack the charcoal man were practially assured of survival every year. But then again, the old lady's Arcanine was aging just as fast as she was, and Jack's Golem was too slow to ever be a powerhouse in a fight. Well, Jack also had a Scyther that helped him to fell trees, but the mantis-like Pokemon wouldn't have stood a chance against the metal-armored Metagross.

So when darkness fell during the final days of autumn, the townsfolk would sleep fitfully, not knowing if they would wake up the next morning.

xxx

"The last leaves will be falling soon," came a voice from behind Jack's back, as he started to head out into the Evil Forest, "Are you sure you'll be alright going in there alone?"

"I have Goruugu and Katana," Jack replied, turning around to see Miss Koh standing not twenty feet away from him, "They should be enough to handle any punks in the forest."

"That is for certain, but what if-"

"If the Metagross come, Goruugu should be able to keep them at bay with his Fire Punches. It worked that one time when they tried to eat me."

"I worry for you, Jack. Already my Mac is too old to defend anyone but himself and yours truly... Should you fall, there'd be nothing left of us come winter."

"I'll be back before tomorrow, Miss," he said with a small smile, "They wouldn't come so early now, would they? The cold winds haven't even started blowing yet."

The old lady nodded solemnly, stepping forward to hug him tightly, "Well, I'll be on guard till tomorrow, then. Have a safe trip, Jack."

"Thank you, ma'am."

xxx

Felling trees in the Evil Forest was not an easy task; one had to know what Pokemon marked certain portions of the forest as their territory, and which trees could be chopped down without angering any indigenous specimens. A swarm of rioting Kricketune could be brutal, a trio of furious Skarmory would be deadly, and one angered Drapion would equal disaster. The forest was a Pokemon-eat-Pokemon world in itself, and even the fittest were not guaranteed to survive.

Jack had learned the tricks of the charcoal trade from his father, who had been the town's charcoal man before him. It was always safest to look for areas where the trees grew dense and where the bark was whole - Pokemon habitats tended to have wider gaps between trees, and claws were often used to indicate territorial boundaries. Sometimes, old claw marks would be gouged out and new markings forced into place; this signified the demise of the area's previous inhabitant(s). So he would use Katana's acute eyesight to locate such 'safe' spots, and proceed to harvest up to four suitable trees in one go. Goruugu would carry the logs to the cave where he made his charcoal, and if help was needed, Katan would easily slice up the logs into smaller chunks so that even he could aid in the transporting process.

Normally, the Metagross would only emerge from their mountain dens about three days after his final pre-winter harvest. Normally, they would only appear once he was back in town. To his knowledge, there wasn't a single year where they had broken their macabre timetable of sorts.

Alas, that little piece of knowledge couldn't be faulted for the chilling gales that fleetingly assaulted the mountains a few days earlier than normal that year. Red eyes snapped open, and stiff limbs clanked as they were stretched. Metal shrank when cooled, and Steel-type Pokemon were no exception to that one law of physics. Ignoring the feeling of their skins contracting on their heavy bodies, the Metagross awoke, and slowly began moving towards the opening of the caverns which formed their dens.

xxx

It was somewhere close to sunset when Jack, Goruugu, and Katana made it within a mile of the town. Although they could have probably made the journey back in another five hours, they decided to chance a night in the forest. After all, the Pidgey and Spearow were still flying high, so the cold gusts obviously hadn't yet settled in over them.

"Guys, we'll spend the night in here. Is that alright with you two?"

"Go? Golem..."

"Scy!"

"I know it's unsafe, but traveling in the dark could mean us wandering into Shiftry or even Scizor territory. I was thinking about that cave we spotted the last time."

"Scyther?"

"Golem."

"Goruugu remembers, see? It's about a quarter-mile back, but it's sheltered enough. We could easily pile up the logs at the entrance for safety."

"Lem! Golem go."

"Hmmm... Never did think of that. You still know how to use Thunderpunch, right?"

"Go."

"Katana, you still know Swords Dance and Fury Cutter?"

"Ther!"

"We'll just scare the bats out if there are any, then. I'll club any who try to attack me, so just take care of yourselves."

With nods of assent, the two Pokemon followed their master back in retracing their steps, towards a small cave which he had discovered the last time they were out for charcoal-wood.

xxx

That night, the Metagross made their way through the dense foliage, cutting a barren path through the undergrowth. Other wild Pokemon scattered before them, fleeing for their very lives. One unfortunate Ledian was crushed by the hundred-pound legs of a Metagross, only to be rapidly and bloodily chewed up by the Psychic creature's ventrally-located mouth. Even the Drapion and Scizor warily backed away from the seven Metagross making their way towards the small human town at the edge of the forest. All of them except for the Drapion and Shiftry felt brief touches of Psychic probes in their minds as the predatory Pokemon searched for prey that would put up minimal resistance.

When some of the Metagross chanced upon three minds sleeping lightly in a cave not three miles from their present location, two abruptly deviated from their path towards the village.

If a detour meant an appetizer... the humans did have a saying about 'the more the merrier', didn't they?

xxx

Jack was awoken by a thundering crash coming from somewhere outside the mouth of the cave. Katana, slightly more alert than his master, was already up and in a fighting stance facing the cave's mouth. Goruugu was soundly asleep, his head and limbs tucked into his rock-layered shell. Still somewhat dazed, the charcoal man picked up his little gas lantern, and looked warily at the entrance.

"What was that?"

"Scy..." growled the mantis Pokemon, as the logs they had stacked at the cave mouth trembled, "Scyther!"

"Metagross? But it isn't- How? Goruugu, wake up!"

As the turtle-like Rock Pokemon slowly stirred, the topmost log was forcefully ripped away from the cave's entrance, snapping cleanly in two. The broken wood levitated briefly before flying into the cave, _towards_ the trio taking shelter inside.

"Duck!"

"GOLEM!" bellowed the groggy Golem, fists igniting as it stood before its master. With three incredibly fast Fire Punches, it decimated the flying log pieces, "Go!"

"Inside? But we don't know how deep this cave runs!"

"Scyther scy!"

"Goruugu, guard our backs! Katana and I will see how deep the cave goes!"

_"Well, well, well,"_ came a telepathic voice, _"A three-course appetizer. Indeed appealing, I must say."_

With that, a Metagross burst through the log barrier, long metal limbs tearing through the wood as though it was tissue paper. Behind it, another one was visible, red eyes glowing with a crazed hunger. Goruugu the Golem ignited his fists once again, even as Jack and Katana fled deeper into the cave, guided only by the faint lantern light.

xxx

"Scy!"

"It goes deep, huh? We'll need to go back for Goruugu now."

"Scyther?"

"Yeah, we do. He's your brother!" the Bug-type Pokemon hissed with disdain, causing Jack to shake his head, "The tunnel here is too narrow for the Metagross to pass through. We'll be safe once we retrieve Goruugu."

With that, he led his Scyther back towards the cave's outer portion.

xxx

Goruugu panted with exhaustion as he battled the bigger of the two Metagross. The narrow cave entrance had made it possible for only one of them to enter, and the second one seemed to waiting outside while this one tried to kill him. Of course, with his rock-solid physique, that was probably harder than the monster would've liked it to be. He hit the Steel-type with a Fire Punch right between the eyes, dazzling and weakening the massive Pokemon.

_"Guh- _get _out of_ my _wa_aay!" screeched the Psychic, some bits of audible sound blending in with its mental voice as its skin was superheated by the flaming attacks.

"GOLEM! GO!"

With that, Goruugu dished out a massively overpowered right hook straight towards the Metagross' equivalent of a face. A resounding CRACK! echoed in the cave, as his fist smashed cleanly through the rigid metal skin of the other Pokemon. Its legs crumpled beneath it, and it fell to the ground in a lifeless heap, pungent bodily fluids gushing out of its ruptured cranium. The Golem felt too tired to even continue holding up his megaton body, but another Psychic voice cut into his thoughts smoothly.

_"Impressive. Though I do owe my comrade one thing at the very least; it softened you up for me."_

Goruugu felt rather than heard the air before him rippling, and an unnaturally forceful gust of wind slammed into his head, knocking him out cold. Even as he collapsed to the ground, the second Metagross lazily strode into the cave and eyed the fallen Rock/Ground type, stepping over the body of its fallen kin casually.

_"Pah, Golems and their stupid shells... so tedious to eat..."_ the Psychic commented to no one, _"But still, no use wasting good meat."_

As it raised its forelegs to smash the Golem's shell open, a deliciously_ human_ voice shouted at it.

"Get away from him!"

Looking up, the Metagross saw the feeble human and its insect pet approaching slowly, holding a small lamp of some sort.

_"I shall do as I please, human. It was unwise to return here."_

"Don't- don't you dare hurt him! Or-"

_"Or what?" _laughed the Metagross cruelly, as it looked the human in the eye,_ "So WHAT if I did THIS?"_

Without any hesitation, it brought its raised limbs down upon Goruugu's shell. Jack screamed in horror as did Katana, as the Golem's head was cleanly severed at the neck, the shell being split open like an overripe melon hit by a slingshot. Dark blood oozed out of the dead Pokemon's remains, and the Metagross turned to face them once again.

_"With some Psychic power reinforcing my physical strength, your Golem's shell is nothing. All I needed to do was to knock it out, and focus my energy."_

"You... You... MONSTER!"

_"Ask a pig what they think of a human, or a cow. See what they say, you hypocrite. And now... it is YOUR TURN!" _Metagross cackled, as its gore-drenched legs stepped over Goruugu's corpse, enjoying the look of sheer shock on the human's face._  
_

"NOT IF I COULD HELP IT!" boomed a deep voice from somewhere behind the Metagross, causing it to do an abrupt about-face in surprise. As soon as it was facing the newcomer, an incredibly powerful attack was driven down onto the top of its head. Its head was flattened like a tin can, and its legs snapped like twigs as a second, sideways blow was dealt out to it.

Jack and Katana stepped back in panic, as they watched the strange... _thing_ that had once been a dead Metagross walk slowly towards them. It still resembled a Metagross in certain aspects, but now walked on two legs, and had some new bodily parts. All in all, the creature looked like a bizarre hybrid of a Metagross' organic steel skin and a Golem's rock-plated armor.

"Who- what are you?"

"I AM GORUUGU," replied the creature in a thundering voice, "THOUGH THIS NEW BODY IS MUCH BETTER IN A FIGHT THAN MY FORMER ONE, I MUST SAY."

"Scyther? Scy scy!"

"OH, I'M DEAD ALL RIGHT; MY BODY'S RIGHT THERE. BUT ALL I REMEMBERED BEFORE THIS WAS WANTING TO DEFEND OUR TRAINER, AND... HERE I AM."

"Goruugu... What are you?"

"... I HONESTLY DO NOT KNOW."

"Scyther!"

"Hmmm, he _does_ look like a humanoid Bronzong..."

"I DON'T FEEL ANY PSYCHIC POWERS IN ME," declared Goruugu, now examining his new body with interest, "THOUGH IT LOOKS LIKE I'M A CROSS BETWEEN GOLEM AND METAGROSS."

"We'll let a scholar know when we get back, then... If anyone's still alive to relay the message, that is."

"Ther?"

"I FEEL... MUCH STRONGER NOW. MAYBE WE COULD STILL SAVE THE TOWN."

"We're too far!"

"FEAR NOT, MY FRIENDS. CLIMB ON MY BACK, AND WE'LL SEE JUST HOW FAST THIS NEW BODY OF MINE CAN MOVE."

As Jack and Katana climbed onto the massive, golem-like creature's shoulders, Jack wrapped his arms about his old partner's neck tightly, hugging him for all it was worth.

"I'm glad you're still alive, Goruugu."

"Scyther," buzzed Katana happily, as it playfully poked at its companion's head.

"AS AM I, JACK," rumbled Goruugu slowly, as he smashed his way through the cave's narrow mouth and began to run, "AS AM I."


	3. Gemini

**Gemini**

It was right in the middle of the rainy season, and there was no rain.

The ground was parched and cracked, totally devoid of life. Acres of land which had once been brimming with rice, wheat, and corn now lay barren, stripped of their bounty by the merciless drought. While some summer heat was expected every year, the sheer magnitude and persistence of the dry spell had managed to squeeze the residents of Solaceon of all their stored resources. It had been decades since a heat wave this bad, and no one had really anticipated the likeliness of such an event repeating itself.

Actually, it would have been more accurate to say that _someone _had predicted what was coming, but that no one had been particularly attentive to said warnings.

At the edge of town, there was a hut where an elderly woman sat in a circle that had been scratched into the dirt floor. Garbed in several layers of clothing and wearing at least three shawls, she did not seem affected in the least bit by the torturous heat.

"This... this was in the bones..." she rasped, as she fiddled with the remnants of a Manectric's skeleton that she was examining, "The bones... they never lie."

"But how do we end the dry spell?" asked a young man - one of three that were seated before her on the hard-packed ground, "It was done before!"

Not looking up, the old lady shuffled about in her place, still tinkering with the yellowed bones, "That was a long time ago... I know not if it can be done... or if the price will be any heavier."

"Price?" echoed one of the young men skeptically, "What price?"

"The rainmaker is not a benevolent soul... what you seek, you may not find... unless you pay the price it states."

"But the stories say that Mokgobja beat it in a battle, and that it bestowed rain on our lands in reward," said the first young man, "He beat the rainmaker with his Marowak, and the town was saved."

For a while, silence reigned in the hut. The old woman continued to rearrange the bones, seemingly in random patterns that made no sense whatsoever to her three young visitors. After what seemed to be an hour, she finally spoke up.

"That part is true... but what the stories never mentioned is how he was left as a wreck of a man, never again to be who he once had been. Young men, are you certain of this?"

"Yes!" they replied in unison, their voices cracking as they spoke through parched throats that wouldn't have minded a drink of water.

"Very well..." whispered the woman, her voice barely audible, as she dug around in her garments for something hidden beneath all the layers of fabric, "But make sure that you take this with you - it will help you to keep the rainmaker at bay, should it decide to turn on you."

"We thank you, Lady Pornthip," said the last young man, as he reached out to take the trinket which she offered to them with a bony fist, "Your advice has been invaluable."

"Fare thee well, my young friends," she murmured, as they got up and left her hut. The aged shaman didn't miss the fact that none of them had wondered why she never looked at them during the entire duration of their visit.

If her white eyes had met theirs, though, she was sure that the answer would have been obvious.

xxx

"Here is it," said one of the young men, "The rainmaker's cave."

His two companions looked to where he was pointing, and saw that he was right; a cave's entrance was visible between two large rock formations not a hundred feet in front of them. Had they not been looking for the cave, they would have probably missed the small opening, hidden as it was within the dark shadows of the natural formations around it. Somehow, even from their present location, the cavern mouth seemed to convey a sinister aura of its own.

"Are you sure it is the right one?" asked the tallest of the men, squinting to try and make out the tell-tale signs of the rainmaker's dwelling, "I can't see the markings."

"We'll have to get closer, then."

Silently, the three of them approached the dark opening. As they drew closer to it, it somehow appeared even darker than it had been at first, as though it had swallowed up any light that tried to enter it. When they were just twenty feet from the cave, the third man stopped his companions with a raised hand.

"I think I see the markings."

"Where? I don't see them..."

"There, just on the right of the entrance. Two circles above a triangle."

"Yes," nodded the tall man, "Koli is correct. Gian, release your Pokemon."

The one named Gian nodded and released his Charmander, "Chiko, you'd best be letting Kudu out, too."

With a flash of light, a lithe Houndoom materialized from its apricorn-Pokeball, snarling at whatever its trainer had perceived to be a threat. Seeing nothing of the sort, it instead began wagging its tail and pawing at its trainer's feet, eager to have a game of catch.

"Kudu!" Chiko greeted his Pokemon warmly, "We are going to battle a strong enemy... Are you alright with that?"

The Fire/Dark type sat down on its haunches and cocked its head to one side curiously, "Doom?"

"Inside that cave is the rainmaker," Chiko gestured with his right hand, "And if the stories are true, it has a minion guarding it - one weak against fire."

Kudu the Houndoom bared his fangs in anticipation of what was soon to come, some embers flying out of his mouth as he did so.

With that, the five of them slowly walked into the pitch-black cave, their path illuminated ever-so-slightly by Gian's little Charmander.

xxx

"I think we are getting close," whispered Koli, after what felt like an eternity of walking in the near-darkness of the cave. Even the Charmander's considerably strong Flash attacks had not been able to fully-illuminate the cave, and so they had all been walking single file with their left hands up against the wall of the subterranean tunnels. Hopefully, if they were lost, all they'd have to do would be to make an about-face, and walk back with their right hands on the wall instead. They were currently in a large, room-like section of the caves, large enough so that a single Flash wasn't capable of reaching all of its periphery at once.

"What makes you say that?"

"I think I know," replied Gian, nudging Chiko in the ribs. His taller companion looked in the direction where he was pointing, and balked at the sight that greeted his eyes.

Barely ten feet ahead of them, at the edges of the Charmander's Flash light, lay a human skeleton that had been picked clean. Shredded pieces of fabric were visible on the floor around it, as though someone - or something - had ripped the person's clothes off before killing the poor soul.

"There are no bats in here..." murmured Chiko, as he instinctively stepped closer to his Houndoom, "It must be the rainmaker's work... or its minion."

As if on cue, a hollow ringing sound was heard, echoing eerily in the dark chamber. All of them immediately huddled closer together, the other three nervously clutching at Chiko and Kudu.

_"Who dares enter the rainmaker's lair?"_

"Did- did you hear that?"

_"You certainly did. I ask again - who dares enter the rainmaker's lair?"_

"Nobody!" answered Chiko firmly, as his ancestor Mokgobja was said to have done.

There was a pregnant silence, before the voice spoke up once again in their minds.

_"Nobody? Very well... what is it you seek to ask of the rainmaker?"_

"The drought is merciless this year. I seek to challenge the rainmaker, so that if I win, the dry spell may be ended."

As soon as he had answered it, the telepathic voice began cackling with what sounded like a mixture of mirth and murderous intent.

_"As you wish."_

Before anyone of them could do anything, a _second_ telepathic voice spoke up.

_"Leave the challengers."_

Two red lights flashed in the cavern's darkness, and three sickening cracking noises were heard in rapid succession. Chiko gasped as he heard the three soft thuds that followed, even as Gian's Charmander dropped dead with a broken neck, its tail flame going out instantly.

_"Step forward... child,"_ the second telepathic voice said with a hint of satisfaction in it, _"Step forward, and approach my altar."_

"You- you killed them!"

_"They were of no consequence,"_ the first telepathic voice retorted, its tone distinctly scornful, _"Now, young one. Do as the rainmaker has said, and step up to the altar, lest you suffer from the same fate as your companions."_

_"SILENCE!" _boomed the second voice, _"It is I, the rainmaker, who governs life and death in these chambers! You have forgotten your place, Bronzong!"_

_"Apologies, master,"_ whimpered the Bronzong, as it lit up the cavern with a powerful Psychic-powered Flash, _"Step forward, challenger."_

Swallowing hard and trying to not look at the bodies of their murdered companions, Chiko and Kudu slowly walked forward, towards the Bronzong which had done the dirty deed.

_"The altar lies beyond that doorway,"_ pointed the Psychic/Steel type with one of its flat, finger-less arms, _"Luck to all."_

The two of them walked past the doorway to the next cave - which was curiously square-shaped like a man-made door. As soon as they crossed its threshold, the Bronzong stopped its Flash attack, plunging the chamber into darkness.

A malevolent laugh was heard, even making Kudu the Houndoom whimper slightly, _"You have brought a fellow Dark-type to challenge me, or so Bronzong has said. Hence we shall duel in darkness... to the death."_

Kudu growled, and the cave was briefly illuminated by a sickly-green light as the rainmaker launched its first attack.

xxx

The battle was nightmarish, to say the least. It was hard for Chiko to see what was going on, unless an energy-based attack was actually coming his way. Even the little spell tag which his town's shaman had given to him was now little more than dust - the rainmaker had disintegrated it with a casual Psychic attack, giggling like a madman as it did so. The laughter was unnerving enough, but the few moments when it had actually started sobbing hysterically and wailing like a banshee were considerably scarier. Sometimes, it even spoke up in guttural voices, or spouted random bits of speech that sounded like they had once been parts of several sentences.

Shadow Balls and Dark Pulses were fired, seemingly at random, by the rainmaker. At times, it would dazzle Kudu with a bright flash of light before slamming down onto the canine Pokemon with a nasty Silver Wind attack. Laughing maniacally all the while, it didn't even flinch when a Flamethrower from the Houndoom caught it square in the face.

From what Chiko could see, the rainmaker had no distinct body at all; it had a dark, dense lower portion, out of which emerged a swirling mass of purple smoke. Inside the shifting smog were numerous green spheres of light, which gave the creature a lantern-like appearance when it charged them with energy. As such, it was only truly visible when it was about to attack.

_"You call THIS a challenge?"_ sneered the sinister being, _"I am ending this, right now, right here!"_

"Kudu, Crunch!" the Houndoom leaped forward, only to hit the hard-packed ground as the rainmaker zoomed aside with a Psychic push to the solid portion of its physique. As it flew aside, Chiko saw that the sand beneath its base was moving like the waves of an ocean, propelling it sideways rapidly.

_'It said it was a Dark-type. But it still moves using Psychic powers...'_ Chiko frantically thought, as his Pokemon desperately evaded several Dark Pulses that its opponent shot at it, _'It must be manipulating the area around it!'_

"Flamethrower the ground beneath the rainmaker!"

"DOOM!" snarled the Pokemon, as it exhaled a great gout of flame towards the shapeless being across the chamber. The fire curled around the rainmaker's solid base, causing it to screech in pain.

_"Fool!"_ shrieked the Dark creature, as it assaulted Kudu with a large amount of flame-heated sand, _"You shall pay for this!"_

"Crunch on its base!"

Kudu pounced at the rainmaker once again, only to be swatted aside by a pillar of sand that surged out of the ground. As it hit the cavern wall with a yelp of pain, the sand pillar smashed into it with the force of a sledgehammer.

"NO!" Chiko shouted, running straight at the rainmaker. He jumped at it, and threw a punch at its constantly shifting face.

Almost immediately, time seemed to stop, and Chiko saw the world through a hundred sets of eyes. An overwhelming amount of mental images rushed through his mind like a never-ending wall of portraits that moved and spoke. Some showed males, some showed females, some showed Pokemon. And some were horrible visions - visions of cruelty, terror, and other dark moments that would have best remained forgotten. He finally realized that he was trapped in a pool of memories when he saw his ancestor's face - Mokgobja - among the massive cascade of images. However, once the images stopped, he found himself trapped in absolute darkness, with innumerable clammy hands clumsily swiping at him.

It was then that he understood the rainmaker's true nature - it was a being composed of numerous memories and souls, which removed its need for a true body. Every bit of spiritual energy the rainmaker possessed was bound to the rock-like part of its 'body', and so it couldn't even move beyond the cave where its Psychic powers were magnified. In a small way, he pitied the creature, Dark as it was. Even as the rainmaker forcibly ejected his hand from within its 'body', he felt rather than saw the chamber around him beginning to swirl and distort. With one final cry, he collapsed to the ground, leaving the chamber silent save for his Pokemon's panting.

Kudu howled, and the rainmaker calmly called for Bronzong to remove the body.

xxx

_"I do not know what to make of this,"_ Bronzong said, looking utterly bewildered, _"The human sacrificed himself for his Pokemon."_

_"Some humans are noble beings,"_ replied the bell-shaped Pokemon's master, _"I have let the Houndoom go - but it will not return to the human's home. It shall wander the midnight darkness until Time comes to reclaim it."_

_"And what about the rain they sought?"_

_"It is theirs to have; I have ended the drought that ruined them... Someday soon, we must really talk to that lunatic Alakazam and stop him from randomly using Sunny Day on human habitations."  
_

_"Ah, you had me there - I had almost forgotten that you had even a fiber of mercy in you."_

_"All it took was one Rain Dance... And just because you have seen a FEW of my faces,"_ jeered the rainmaker in a masculine voice - one which rapidly morphed into a uniquely female voice once it had turned away from Bronzong, _"Does not mean you have seen them ALL."_

Bronzong shuddered, and meekly watched in silence as the Spiritomb vanished into the fissure on its Odd Keystone.


End file.
